MoNADELPlilA. 
t ) 
MUTABLE HIBISCUS. 
T he Monadelphia abound in Beauty as the Hexandrla do, and they are 
Clafles worthy of a particular Regard from all who ftudy vegetable Na» 
ture. This Plant, and the fucceeding double One, its Offspring, 
would be fufficient Proof of it, had not the preceding Three laid in their Claim 
befide. The Leaf, the Flower, the general Growth in this Species are all 
elegant ; and there is, befide, a Variety in the Colouring of the Bloom ac- 
cording to its Age, which has a moft roniantick, as well as fmgular Appear- 
ance. We fee in European Plants, Flowers differently colour’d, thoUgh the 
Species be the fame : thus we have bltie Campanulas and white ones, and a vaff 
Variety befide : we alfo fee in fome of our Garden Plants, a Change of Colour 
on the fame Stem, but this is flight in Comparifon of the peculiar and ftriking 
Variation feen in the Flowefs of this Etibifcus : they vary every Hour as they 
Hand upon the Shrub j and the name Mutable was given it for this Reafon. 
At the firfl: opening they are Very pale ; the Tin6f is Crihifon, but it is fd 
watery in that State of the Flower, that it amounts, at the, utmdft, to nothing 
more than what we call a Flelh-colour i it is that Sort of Blulh we fee upon 
fome of the natutally white Hyacinths, and on the Bloffoms of the double 
Bramble. When it has flood to be fully open, it glows with a ftronger Tin£l j 
from this Time jt becomes more and more red, till it approaches to Decays and 
then there is feen -it in a Colour deeper than ever, but lefs elegants 
’Tis common to lee a Shrub, of twelve Feet high, fpread out intd a Head of 
near as much Diameter, and cover’d in a Manner with thefe vafl; Flowers, as 
thick and frequent as the Leaves j fome almdfl white,, and others in all the De- 
grees of Colouring, from the lighteft Blufh, to that dbfcure Crimfoil in which 
they fade and perifli. > 
The whole Shrub is beautiful, the Leaves are large and of a downy Soft- 
nefs like Velvet : the extream Branches have the fame foft coverirlg ; and the 
innumerable Buds, on thefe, appear a great Article of its Beauty : they have 
the double Cup, as all the Hibifci, and they have this ting’d varioufly with 
Brown, or Red mix’d with a delicate Green. 
The Chara£lers of thisFldwef ate the fame as in the preceding, and they 
are exprefs’d with fufficient Plainnefs. The numerous Buttons hang Upon very 
fhort, loofe Ends of Filaments, whofe Bodies grow together, into a Tube or 
Column, thicker arid fhorter than in the Angle Kind lafl nam’d, bUt pierc’d iii 
the fame Manner by a Style, whofe Ave Heads are rio ill Grace in the Angle 
Flower. Jt fhews the Clafs to be the Monadelphia. 
This is a Weed in China. Jt grows in wafte Grounds, and over-runs whole 
Acres. They admit it Ibmetimes into the remote and wild Parts of their Gar- 
dens : but ’tis the following State of it, which they admire and cultivate. 
D O U- 
'ttibifcus foliis cordate- QuInQuaflgularibus^ obfoletc fetratis, caule arboro. Linn. ^ 
Palmated Cfeina Rofe. Vulgo^ 
